The Battle of Hastings
The Battle of Hastings was fought between the defending English army and the invading Norman army. In it King Harold was killed, Duke William became king of England, and thousands of men were killed. Prelude The Battle of Hastings was essentially started when Edward the Confessor died, leaving no Heir and both William of Normandy and Harold , Earl, promised the English throne. When Harold claimed the throne for himself, William gathered an army and decided to attack England. Vikings attacked England, leaving Harold and his army fighting the Vikings in the North. When William attacked, Harold marched down south again to counter the Norman invasion. The two armies met at a place called Battle. Battle Begining Harold's tactics involved having his army on top Selnac hill, so that the Normans had to fight uphill, and to employ the English tactic known as the English shield wall. William's involved using Archery to take out the main defence from long range, using cavalry to cause major destruction full stop, and the foot soldiers to provide a general 'brute force'. Main The battle started when the Norman Archers attacked with a barrage of arrows, which hit the English shield wall and stopped. William then ordered his cavalry to charge. However when the cavalry met the shield wall, they ran around the wall, instead of attacking due to the horse's fear. William ordered a full on infantry charge. The infantry charged up the hill, as English infantry hurled rocks, stones, maces and javelins down the hill at them. The Norman infantry, after suffering heavy losses, began attacking the English shield wall. William was amazed that the shield wall was still completely intact even after the archery attack. After an hour of intense battle, the Breton infantry on William's left fled down the hill. And to William's utter delight, the English infantry battling the Bretons followed into the open, and without the shield wall, were butchered. William copied this, and staged several more fake retreats, each resulting in the English following. Harold was horrified. He knew this was happening, but he because he was in the thick of the battle himself he wasn't able to get over to the chasing Infantry to stop them. End After all the English deaths in the front line, many of the elite Housecarls were killed and most infantry in the front line were actually the untrained fyrdmen. William noticed this and ordered his archers to fire up into the sky in a porabolic arc. The archers fired, the arrows shot straight up into the sky - and death rained down upon the unprotected English heads. The destruction continued to rain upon the English, until Harold himself was shot in the eye. As moral plummeted, William ordered one final infantry attack, finnally, just before nightfall, the Norman Infantry broke through the shield wall. The Infantry poured into the English ranks, and butchered them all. Aftermath Only a small selection of English Fyrdmen acctually escaped the battle - many were killed, and no Housecarls escaped because they fought to their deaths over the King Harold's body. William marched his army toward London, and after having his first attempt to get into London over London bridge thwarted, he attacked from the North-west, and made it through. William negotiated with the hastily appointed King Edgar a peaceful turnover - if Edgar surrendered his position as King to William , London would be spared. True to his word, William was crowned King on Christmas day, 1066, and did not attack London as he said. Category:History